Tue, October 2, 2012 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM UBC Point Grey Campus. Free. Principal's Series: Thinking at the Edge of Reason:
Interdisciplinarity in Action
Henry Yu, St John's College; Andrew Riseman, UBC's planned "Sustainability" College; Mark Vessey, Green College; Moderator: Patricia Vertinksy, Kinesiology, UBC
5-6:30 pm, with reception to follow
Coach House, Green College, 6201 Cecil Green Park Road, UBC
Residential colleges with academic mandates are a relatively recent affair at UBC. For its first 75 years, the University had none. Then, in 1990, fresh from helping to found Green College, Oxford, Cecil Green pledged the money to create Green College, UBC (1993-) with an interdisciplinary mandate (www.greencollege.ubc.ca). A few years later, alumni of the former St. John's University in Shanghai helped found St. John's College here (1997-) with an international mandate (www.stjohns.ubc.ca). Now in 2012, as St. John's College marks its 15th year and Green College enters its 20th, plans are being laid for two more residential colleges: one on the UBC-Vancouver campus, with a mandate for sustainability, and another (for graduates) at UBC-O in Kelowna. This therefore seems a suitable moment to take stock of the college experiment at UBC. (1) What do colleges of this kind--or these kinds--contribute to the University (and to the experience of their residents and non-resident associates) that is distinctive and valuable? (2) What are their actual and ideal relationships to other academic units on campus? (3) What is or ought to be their role in UBC's strategy of community engagement? (4) What have we learnt from the experience of the first 20 years of colleges at UBC? (5) What might be learnt from the experience of comparable institutions at other universities worldwide? These questions--and others--will be addressed in an open-mic discussion, following introductory remarks from the Principals of UBC's two existing colleges and from a faculty member who has been active in the planning for the new "sustainability" college.
This academic event hosted by Green College is open to the University community and general public without charge. For more information, contact gc.events@ubc.ca or visit www.greencollege.ubc.ca
Those interested in attending dinner at Green College after the event are asked to purchase a dinner ticket at least by noon the business day before. Contact 604-822-8660 or visit the Green College website at www.greencollege.ubc.ca for further details